Germany 2015

It's been a while since we've been to Germany, but because I'm on sabbatical this year we are a bit more flexible with our schedule and thus decided to leave for Germany in early September. I gave my research students a task (let's see if they actually did it!), and off we went. As always, the beasties are with Billie and Rod, and I know they are being pampered. Case in point:

We took the direct flight with Condor on Friday, 09/04. I really like this flight - it leaves PDX in the late afternoon, which significantly reduces the jet lag since we just slept through most of the flight. We did have some trouble the first few nights, but overall it wasn't nearly as bad as in previous years.

First stop, Jan's parents in Gruenstadt. They picked us up at the airport on Saturday morning, and after a short drive we arrived in Gruenstadt. We didn't do much that day, just recovered from the flight. I think we had a walk through the neighborhood and briefly stopped by an old family friend before having dinner (Rouladen) and sinking into a deep sleep (until midnight... :)).

On Sunday, we drove to Mannheim and had lunch in the Fernsehturm, which houses a rotating restaurant at the top. That gave us a great view of Mannheim and the surrounding areas.

After lunch, Helga and Wolfgang drove us to Heidelberg for a trip down memory lane. It felt both very familiar and very unfamiliar at the same time. Very odd feeling. We stopped by the university's bookstore and bought new hoodies with embroidered stitching. Love them! Then we met with Markus and Christian for coffee and cake at the Schiller's Cafe in downtown Heidelberg. The cafe had lots of gluten free cakes, and I thoroughly enjoyed my piece of cheesecake. Yum! And catching up with Markus & Christian was great fun too. (And I just realized we didn't take a single photo of them! Shame on us....)

Monday we went shopping in Gruenstadt where I found a nice new pullover (thanks Helga :)!), and after a trip through the Fussgaengerzone and the Globus, we enjoyed dinner at the Deidesheimer Hof where celebrities like Helmut Kohl or Gorbatschow had eaten before.

Tuesday morning we took the train to Bebra,

where we arrived in the early afternoon (we had to run like mad in Fulda to catch the connection, only to find out, once we were in the train, that it was delayed by a few minutes after all. Oh well, good exercise!). 

We got a tour of the newly renovated Bebra on Wednesday. In addition to lots of traffic circles (they really love them!), downtown Bebra got a whole new look with its mini-mall (Das Be), where we had coffee and found some nice shirts (thanks Mom!). We also stopped in Rothenburg where we picked up the pieces to make this beautiful lamp:

The seller was kind enough to show me how to assemble it from scratch, which makes transporting it in the plane a whole lot easier. 

And because of our impeccable timing (cough), my birthday happened to be on Thursday. Mom made an amazing cake that I thoroughly enjoyed. I'll definitely make it again when we're back home, although I'll replace the Schmand with cream cheese.

Friday morning we took another train to Hamburg

where we visited Wiebke and Johanna in their new house. It's absolutely beautiful! After a trip to the mall, where I bought lots of small things that I didn't know I'd need but that are just super-cute, and where we had lunch,

and a stop at the Fressnapf where we found toys and other goodies for our furry beasts, we had a fantastic dinner at the Gutskueche. Very yum!

On Saturday we had a calm breakfast and left the house close to noon to head to the harbor where we took a two-hour boat tour of the harbor. While the first part was a bit slow and difficult to see (most of the attractions were on the starboard side, but our seats were facing the port side), the second half was much better: We saw several huge freight ships up close. And let me tell you, they are really huge!

After that excursion we walked to the Ti Breizh restaurant, a Breton restaurant specializing in Crepes and Galette (that are made with buckwheat flour and thus gluten free!). Oh, so good! We each had a hearty one, and Jan and I shared a sweet one with salt caramel. We also bought the cookbook. There will be more in our future :).

In the evening we played the introductory round of the board game Andor, a cooperative game (which we love). It's a lot of fun, and I think we'll get a game too for our boardgames evenings.

After a calm breakfast on Sunday morning we played the second round of Andor, which we won as well, of course, and then drove to the musical theater to watch "Das Wunder von Bern". We absolutely loved it!

And to end this great day perfectly, we ordered pizza and played the third round of Andor.... which we lost. Oh well. Guess we'll have to come visit again!

Last stop on our trip before heading back to Frankfurt: Wuppertal to say hi to Jule, Juri, Soso, and Phryne. Jule and Phryne picked us up at the train station, and together we walked to Soso's school to pick her up as well. Then we stopped at the Katzengold for lunch before heading to their current place (they are renting a vacation home until they can move in their permanent rental in a few weeks) for coffee, pralines, and chatting.

After a few hours we took the last train back to Frankfurt airport where we spent the night at the Mercure hotel.

In the morning we met Elisa Ahern, a former physics student of mine who graduated in the spring and is now a Fulbright scholar in Frankfurt, for breakfast at Kaefer's. We had a blast!

And now we're home again. As I am typing this I am sniffling and coughing (caught a nasty cold in Germany!), but happy to be home. The furries were also thrilled to have us back: Pepper played velcro dog Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, and George stopped in multiple times during the night just to sit next to us and purr (I guess he was checking whether or not we were still there :)).